The GOP Problem With Women

Friday

Dec 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 27, 2013 at 8:00 AM

By Mardi Harrison, Community Blogger

The headline read “GOP Tutored in How to Talk to Women.” My instant reaction was, (right after, “How ludicrous!”), “who will the tutors be, and where will they begin?” The more I think about this idea of teaching the GOP to talk to women, the more obviously wrong-headed the whole idea becomes.

The GOP has determined the need to learn to talk to us, because we’re a substantial voting block that President Obama carried by an 18 point gap. They seem to think this was caused by the Neanderthals who represent the GOP, who keep saying things they actually believe – women are so intent on killing their babies, that they will claim they were raped just to get an abortion. “Legitimate rapes” are rare, because a woman’s body has a way of shutting itself down when it is actually attacked. Women who use birth control are “sluts.” Yes, communication training is going to be challenging when this is your starting point.

But the GOP is not looking for a real solution – just a cosmetic fix. The problem is not thoughtless remarks – it’s the actual thoughts contained in the remarks. Frankly, the idea that they can slap on a thin coat of paint; that if their candidates can just learn not to stick their feet knee deep into their throats -- that women will never notice their true positions as demonstrated through their votes and the insane legislation they keep pushing – that women will be mollified and fooled into voting for this group of misogynists –that idea is just plain insulting.

First, perhaps if the GOP would acknowledge that “women” are not some alien species, they wouldn’t feel the need for special education. But talking to us like we’re actual people would require them to respect us as people – as equals – and this is clearly not their mindset. We know they don’t support equal pay for women because they consistently vote against it. We know they are vehemently anti-women’s health, because they continue to oppose the Affordable Care Act which mandates that insurance companies cannot charge women more for their insurance than they do men, and provides for preventative cancer screenings at no cost. They have passed laws that close women’s health clinics across the country, and don’t trust us to make decisions about our own health care and bodies. The House passed 52 bills in 2013 related in some way to limiting women’s right to abortion. By way of comparison, how many jobs bills did they pass—exactly none.They actually assault us by forcing us to undergo unnecessary, invasive medical procedures to punish us for attempting to take control, and they deprive us of legal means to protect ourselves from violence in our homes by opposing the Violence Against Women Act. Oh yes – kids are often important to women, and the GOP has stripped out funding for head start and food stamps, some 70% of which go to feed children. Drastic cuts to the social safety net disproportionately affect women and children. No wonder they’re having trouble talking to us – what could they possibly have to say?

The Republican attitude toward women is reflected in the people they nominate to run for Congress. Currently, there are 78 women in the House (out of 435 Congresspeople) – 58 are Democrats; 20 are Republican, even though Republicans hold a strong majority (235/200) in the House. In the Senate, there are 16 Democratic women, 4 Republican women, even though the Dems only hold a very slim majority (53/45 with 2 independents) in the Senate. Maybe that’s because the conservative model still believes that the woman belongs in the home, making babies (as will happen when you deprive us of birth control), and cooking dinner.

So, the GOP attitude toward women is not changing any time soon, but they’ve noticed that women are a formidable voting block. What to do about that? Well, recently, they’ve relied on their old, tried and true methods. If you are not in the majority, eliminate enough voters of your opposition that you become the majority by default. Thus, the avalanche of voter suppression laws across the country, aimed specifically at minorities and – yes, women. Here in PA, it is well established that the Voter ID passed by our Republican state government is devastating for many women whose names have changed, sometimes multiple times in their lives. A woman who has been married twice, for example, and has no driver’s license, has to show her original birth certificate, her original marriage license, her divorce decree, and her second marriage license to show a trail of how she came to have the name she currently has. I have a driver’s license, but otherwise, this profile is me. I actually do have my divorce decree from 36 years ago, but I don’t have my first marriage license, (I may have burned it), and frankly, I wouldn’t have a clue where to start to get a replacement. And, my ex-husband is dead. If you were born out of state, and don’t have a birth certificate, that exponentially magnifies the difficulty. If you were born 50 or 60 years ago at home in the rural south, you probably were never issued a birth certificate. Tell me, Mr. GOP trainer, what are you going to say to the women who have been voting all their lives whom you’ve just disenfranchised that will get her on your side? Oh, now I’m just being silly. You don’t have to talk to her at all – she can’t vote anymore.

OK, well, they can’t disenfranchise all of us, (try as they might) so the question remains – how do they learn to talk to the rest of us? It’s never going to happen as long as they think training bigoted misogynistic men not to make shockingly ignorant public comments is all they need to do. I’ve seen no indication that they’re willing to do more.

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